Video: How to use a timegrapher

I’ve been asked what the lines and readings on the timegrapher I’m using signify. So I thought that putting together a short video would be best.

It’s not complete in a sense that it tells you everything about a timegrapher, but it’s a good enough introduction so that you can interpret yourself what you see on the screen.

In the last part, my lovely assistant Holly joins me, and you can tell she is bored out of her mind by the claptrap that her dad is waffling on about πŸ˜‰

18 thoughts on “Video: How to use a timegrapher

  1. Pingback: Adjusting Tools: The Timing Machine • Adjusting Vintage Watches

  2. Very informative, thank you.. A timegrapher is in the post to me as I write. I agree that Holly looks ready to curl up and die. πŸ™‚

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  4. Can you tell us an internet site where we can get the angle setting for each model of watch? I have 13 mechanical watches, PPs, JLCs, VC, Breguet, Rolex, etc.

    i just bought the timegrapher and am waiting for it to arrive. Your video sold me on a way to step up my watch collecting addiction.

    • Hi Paul,

      Google is your friend. Type in “lift angle” and your maker and calibre, and with a bit of luck, you will get to the right data.

      Most movements have a 52 degree lift angle.

      Best regards,

      Christian

  5. I recently discoveredyour site and enjoy it very much. I got back into mechanical watches a couple of years ago with an Ingersoll chrono with Seagull St1901 calibre and a Chinese B-Uhr with a ST2552 which has amazing accuracy. I’m waiting on delivery of an old Titoni Airmaster. If I run into trouble I will use you! My question is, how were watches regulated before the appearance of modern timegraphers?

    • Before timegraphers, vibrographs were used. Before that, you had to time a watch by observing it over a couple of days. The amplitude can be observed with the naked eye, as the end points of the swing in both directions is visible.

  6. Hi,
    Thanks for posting a great video.
    I have had the watch bug for some time now and regulate the odd watch I own. I have a seiko 6309 that’s bed. Stripped, cleaned oiled etc but it seems to vary on its time keeping, some days it -3 secs a day some days it gaining 2 mins? Timeogragh reading where real good from the guy I got it from -2 s/day amp 201 BE 0, ang 54. Do you fixes watches? Could you take a look at this one?or is it purely for personal interest?
    Regards
    Marcus

  7. Excellent video Christian. Very informative and easy to follow. Love reading your blog, following your journey through various movements and discovering more about them.

  8. Pingback: Buying timegrapher? - Page 2

  9. Nice video!
    One minor point: unless I misheard, the definition of amplitude in the video was misstated a bit: as given by these machines, and in normal ‘watch speak’, what we call ‘amplitude’ is really the half-amplitude, i.e. how far the balance goes from the middle position (impulse jewel in the fork) to one of the extreme positions. So when the machine says ‘275ΒΊ’, the balance goes 275ΒΊ to one side, and then 275ΒΊ to the other. (Not much more than that and the jewel gets close to hitting the back of the fork = ‘knocking’, ‘overbanking’)

    • Thanks for pointing out the error. The amplitude is the arc of the balance from the centre position of the impulse pin (sitting in line with the balance and pallet fork arbor) to the turning point of the balance.

      It does make sense when you look at a graph of a sine wave – the amplitude is not from one extreme to the other, but from the x-axis to one of the peaks.

  10. for a moment there, when you mentioned a watch you had in for a service that doesn’t produce good results, I thought it was going to be my 1020!

  11. That’s very interesting – thanks for that. The amplitude bit especially I didn’t understand until you mentioned it, although it is obvious now you have!

    Does the machine implode if you put a quartz on it..?

    πŸ˜‰

    • This one doesn’t do quartz watches, but you can buy special testers for them. The Witschi timegraphers have an extra attachment for quartz and tuning fork watches.

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